In an effort to deploy high speed services in two way hybrid fiber coaxial cable systems, the performance of the return (upstream) path has become an important issue. Burst noise on the upstream path is a common impairment. The tree and branch architecture utilized on the down stream cable transmissions works well by splitting and replicating the signal from the headend at multiple points. However, in the upstream cable signal path, the cable architecture, which is linear, combines noise from many sources that are located in a plurality of homes and businesses and reduces the signal to noise ratio. In the sub-split band 5-42 MHz, man-made noise is prevalent, particularly in the 5-15 MHz portion where sources of interference may include noise from coaxial cable shield breaks, radio frequency interference generated by transmitters and household appliances, etc. Also, impairments are aggravated by the lack of continuous calibrated signal sources from the remote points. The forward path uses the output of the headend as a reference signal for gain, frequency response, and noise, but the return upstream path has no such reference. This contributes to frequent alignment problems. Furthermore, there is difficulty in determining the entry point of ingress into the return cable plant. This is especially difficult when the noise is burst noise, of a short duration, or of a transient nature. Burst noise also affects wireless systems, both upstream and downstream.